In Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s pastimes we find that He personified the description of a Vaishnav as one who is more gentle than a rose, yet more terrible than the thunderbolt.
Although he was generally kind and sympathetic, He gave no quarter to dishonesty in the name of religion.
When He was in Orissa , in 1871, a member of the Khandait caste and the Atibari sect named Bishikishan who had gained some mystic powers through yoga practices proclaimed himself to be an incarnation of Sri Mahavishnu. He was staying with his acolytes at the edge of the jungle near the town of Bhubaneshwar.
Through his mystic powers, he had been able to cure incurable diseases and these powers had won for him a large following. One day he announced that on the full-moon day he would perform the ras-lila and invited girls of a nearby village to come and join him. The Chaudharis of the Bhringar clan found that he had polluted their womenfolk and went to complain en masse to the district commissioner, Mr. Ravenshaw. The commissioner gave the task of investigating the matter to Thakur Srila Bhakti Vinod, Who went personally into the jungle to meet with Bishikishan. Bishikishan told Him that he was living Mahavishnu and that Sri Jagannath Dev was nothing but a lifeless wooden statue. He tried in various ways to flatter the Thakur and to win Him over. When Srila B. V. Thakur saw that Bishikishan had no intention of stopping his efforts to deceive the people, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur had him arrested and brought back to Puri.
The Thakur proceeded to investigate the background of Bishikishan and visited many villages for that. After accumulating a mass of evidence showing the extent to which this yogi was cheating people, he had him brought to the court. While the case was being heard, the yogi used his mystic powers to cause Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur and His family to be attacked by various illnesses, in an effort to intimidate Him, but without success.
The Thakur was determined to see Bishikishan punished for conspiracy to rebellion and gave him a sentence of one and half years.
In the months that followed, another on in Jaipur proclaimed himself to be the incarnation of Sri Brahma, while someone else in Khorda said that he was manifestation of Sri Balaram. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur quickly thwarted their efforts to cheat the populace.